A little while ago, I gave in to a long-held wish and bought myself a trail camera. If you haven't seen one of these, it's a camera which straps to a tree or mounts on a post, and works off a PIR sensor, with IR illumination so it can take shots in the dark. It can take either stills or video, or a combination of the two, and is fully weatherproof. It's made in woodland camouflage colours and runs off AA batteries. With an extra battery pack, it can be left for up to six months and will capture any object that is warmer than the background. This is the one I got - an American LTL Acorn Scouting Camera Ltl-5210A:
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| Padlock? It would prevent theft of the SD card, but not the camera, which is held by a nylon strap |
So far, I have had some mildly interesting results, although I have to say that the camera's performance is slightly disappointing. Picture quality is modest (about as good as a cheap smartphone) and the range at night is only about 5m - that is, an object needs to be within 5m to trigger the camera, although it will capture an image up to about 15m, with the outer limits quite faint.
I have set it up at various places round the garden over several nights, and results have been getting better, so I imagine that with practice I can get some interesting images. So far, I have discovered that Rescue Cat is an early bird as well as a midnight rambler:
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| Monarch of all she surveys |
and that the cat that the people in the cottage next door swear they know nothing about is a regular visitor:
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| We call him 'Pink Cat' and he really is pink, well, pinky-beige. Not in this photo, though |
But the best of all is an answer to the question: Who has been leaving the small black turds in the middle of the lawn? When Bonkers Dog was alive, he would regularly come home with lovely doggy aftershave in the form of stinking black streaks on his neck. Now we know why:
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| Don't mind me, I'm just off for a quick dump |
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| Need to find the exact spot for maximum impact |
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| Got it. Exactly on a line between kitchen door and compost bin, hur hur |
I know of several places where badgers run, and the next step (after satisfying the fox curiosity) will be to put the camera deep in the woods for a few nights and see what transpires.
I could use one of these linked to an AK47 - that blasted neighbours cat keeps raiding Tomkins' food...
ReplyDeleteThe subject of another post, I think, but the video capability, while good, lags a long way behind the time the still is triggered - such that your AK47 would be toasting the cat they bought after the present one had died.
DeleteI have been eyeing one of those for some time but have been skeptical as to how well they work. Seeing your photos I think it would work quite well to pick up the coyotes, bears, and deer that we know wander our property at night.
ReplyDeleteFor £100 (or equivalent) I think it's fairly good value. The trick seems to be to get the camera in close to where the animals will be, and that makes for the best shots. A position where the beasts have to pass close by (such as a narrow passage between two areas) gets you more hits. See the first fox shot above, compared to 2 and 3. If you have all those visiting your property, it would be a shame not to see them. I'm not going to recommend the Acorn as I have no experience of any other brand/model, but I am happy with mine.
DeleteCool. This is what we need to do. We thought it was raccoons leaving piles of crap in the side yard, but there was a possum on the back deck last night.
ReplyDeleteSeeing these pics makes me wonder what other critters we have going bump/dump in the night.
Do it! It's always good to know what is really going on in your garden/yard at night :)
DeleteNo Bigfoot..?
ReplyDeleteBe patient. I have plans (and a budget gorilla suit on order).
DeleteNice. The photos in the dark are pretty clear and can definitely be defined as to what the subject is. Looking forward to more night creatures on the cam!
ReplyDeleteI'd agree they aren't too bad, although they are not a patch on the pics on the firm's website :) But interesting nonetheless, and I think we are spoiled by TV wildlife photography, forgetting that the kit they are using costs in the tens of thousands.
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